Square Necklines
Getty Images Did you know that the unofficial uniform of cool girls everywhere is a square-neck minidress, probably ruched around the shoulders and sleeves? (Tops too.) Now you do.
Buy-ability index: 9/10, as it's a flattering shape you might not already own lots of
Small Top-Handle Bags
As one of the easier easy ways to dress better in 2018, the less practical but significantly chicer top-handle bag has Scar-ed cross-bodies off the cliff face. But you have to ask yourself: Are you really king now if you have to then carry a second bag, if you would like to have more belongings than your phone, wallet, keys, lighter, subway card, sunglasses, and several balled-up receipts?
Buy-ability index: 10/10, because for any shortcomings, they still look really good
Go West
Getty Images As we saw at the spring shows—on the runways and off them—cowboy boots are back in a big way, and not just because your feet have grown a bunch of sizes since you last wore them. And this time, they're pretty much as they've always been, except maybe a bit shinier and more expensive—and accompanied by more Western references, such as cow print and those button-downs with the contrast pockets.
Buy-ability index: 9/10, mostly because you've always missed the pair you had as a kid
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Gen-Z Yellow
Getty Images From the same marketing department as millennial pink comes 'Gen-Z Yellow,' which is just yellow with spit-polish spin. But rebranding can do wonders for anything, pretty much, so expect GZY to rise up alongside Red, its friend who didn't go to business school.
Buy-ability index: 9/10 (It's a colour, my guy)
Mules
It won't feel wrong yet to keep wearing the woven or poppy suede ones you clomped around in all summer—as some of are right now on a fluke 60-degree day—but the new mules are more ostentatious than before, with fur trimming and brooches and their own personal tassel pulls. Yes, it can be a lot of look, but just like those Miu Miu chandelier slides get old, the right pair, even years from now, can hearken back to a specific, fabulous moment in time.
Buy-ability index: 7/10
Stripes
I mean, duh. But less duh, we're seeing new and creative variations on the most obvious print, from doublewide to ultra thin to super-sequinned to amusingly Oasis-y, zipper and all. So don't buy a T-shirt; buy the special-est stripes you can afford.
Buy-ability index: 10/10 if the newness comes more from fabric or colour, 9/10 if weird shape
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Platforms
Practically nobody wears stilettos anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't get a height boost elsewhere. Enter the platform, now more sculptural and *extra* than ever. Be on the lookout for a rainbow heel.
Buy-ability index: 6/10 (would be higher if less memorable)
Pink
The Golden Globes settled it: Pink, as the chosen colour of cool/strong/independent millennials everywhere, is here to stay. And while it has been on the rise for a while now, signs point to it becoming more of a movement than a fad. Plus nobody looks bad in it.
Buy-ability index: 9/10
Massive Shoulders And Arms
Big sleeves: still huge. Big shoulders: even huger. Like airbags or built-in pool floaties, outward-extending shirts say 'Here I am, darkening the saloon doorway like John Wayne before a shootout.'
Buy-ability index: 9/10 if you're trendy, 6.5/10 if you weren't into the Rachel Comey jeans, 11/10 if you're a nasty woman
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Creative Shirting
Button-downs on acid. No more Mr. Finance Guy.
Buy-ability index: 9/10, but lower than that if you're keen to DIY
Ruffle-mania!
Thanks to your boy Alessandro Michele, fluttery strips of fabric stiff will soon overtake the world, and not just as a decoration for your striped shirt. Stiff or, um, flaccid? Up to you.
Buy-ability index: 8/10 for the highly recognisable H&M top kind, 5/10 for the wedding-cake kind
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